Railway car door



Snnentor Cittornegs RAILWAY CAR DOOR Original Filed April 6, 1932 May15, 1934.

2 P z a1 F m an inward movement.

Patented May 15, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT RAILWAY CAR DOOR Foss,deceased Application April 6, 1932, Serial No. 603,605 Renewed April 10,1934 3 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in railway car doors, andhas for an object to provide an improved car door and hanger, wherebythe door may be easily moved. into and out of a closed position, andwhen closed, will be lodged in an efiectively tight engagement so as toprevent sparks, dust, rain, etc., from gaining entrance into theinterior of the car.

A further object of the invention resides in providing an improved trackand hanger arrangement for doors which will largely eliminate frictionand the force necessary to shift the door along the car.

A further object of the invention resides in providing a novel form ofdoor hanger in which the door will be first moved outwardly from itssnug engagement flush within a countersunk door frame of the car, andthence may be easily slid along the car to expose the door opening forloading and unloading of the car.

With the foregoingand other objects in View, the invention will be morefully described hereinafter, and. will be more particularly pointed outin the claims appended hereto.

In the drawing, wherein like symbols refer to like or correspondingparts throughout the several views,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of the railway freight carshowing the improved door in the closed position.

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on 2-2 in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a similar view taken on the line 3-3 also in Figure 1, and

Figure i is a horizontal section taken on the line 4-4 in Figure 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawing 5 designates generally arailway car having in the side thereof the usual door opening 6 for theloading and unloading of the car.

In accordance with the invention a countersunk door frame 7 is madeextending all about the opening 6 with a shoulder 8 against which thecar door 9 is forced in closing the door by This countersunk door frame7, 8 extends along the top of the door as shown in Figure 2 and alongboth sides of the door as shown in Figure 4 and along the bottom of thedoor as indicated in Figure 2. The wall '7 and the edges of the door asto the top and sides are preferably made on a slight bevel orinclination in order that the door may have a snug lit in the doorframe.

The door is supported preferably by a single the line hanger from anoverhead track preferably of metal and including a central track or webportion 10 having an inner upstanding flange 11 secured by bolts orother fastenings 12 to the side of the car 5; and having further anouter downwardly projecting flange 13 which is spaced from and parallelto the side wall of the car.

The door receives its support preferably from a single central hangerbracket which consists of a plate 14 bolted, riveted or otherwisesecured to the outer wall of the door 9 adjacent its central portion.This plate 14 overlies a reinforcing strip 15 of metal or other suitablematerial which is disposed along the upper exterior edge of the door 9.At its upper end the plate 14 is flanged outwardly at 16 upwardly at 17and again inwardly at 18, thus forming an offset overhead supportcarrying at its upper part a bearing socket 19 for a ball or rollerbearing 20, which rests and rolls upon the rail web 10 thus supportingthe car door 9.

At the upper corners of the door are brackets 21, riveted, bolted orotherwise secured in place and carrying sockets 22 at the upper endsthereof in which are placed ball or roller bearings 23 bearing againstthe under surface or the rail web 10.

The reinforcing plate or strip 24 is efiixedalong the lower outer edgeof the door. At the central lower portion of the door opening is asocket 25 which extends up within the lower edge of the door 9 and opensoutwardly. In this socket is a releasing pin or member 26 engaging backof the lower edge of the door and adapted to swing outwardly forloosening the door or forcing the same outwardly.

The pin 26 may be pivoted. or otherwise movably mounted, for instance asindicated at 27 and may have a tail piece or handle 28 projecting belowthe pivot point for manipulation of the releasing pin.

The door is provided with any desirable type of locking means. Forinstance pivoted latches 29 may be aflixed to the side of the car inorder to cooperate with keepers 30 mounted upon the door. In theinstance shown the keepers 30 may be pro-- vided with wedge shapedsockets 31 for receiving the lateral wedge bills or hooks 32 of theswinging catches whereby, when the catches are forced downwardly intothe sockets 31 the door 9 will be forced home against the shoulder 8.

In the use of the device, the door may be dislodged from its closedposition by use of the pin 26 at the central bottom of the door, thedoor being forced by the pin outwardly to the dotted line positionindicated in Figure 2. In accom- .door both at top and bottom, I :mentsfor the upper and lower portions of the plishin'g this movement, theupper single supporting bearing 20 will roll outwardly upon the trackweb 10 but will be restrained from leaving the track by the arrestingengagement of the brackets 21 with the downwardly extending flange 13 ofthe track rail.

After the door is moved to the outer position it may be slid along therail, moving freely and easily by reason of the anti-friction bearingsand by reason of the fact that the support is substantially centered inone central bearing 20, the end bearings 23 being more for the purposeof preventing the tilting or see-sawing of the door upon the centralsingle support 20. When the door is moved back opposite the door opening6, it will strike a stop 33 and it then may be pushed back inwardlywithin the countersunk door frame 7, 8. The latches 29 may then be swungover and engaged with the wedge shaped sockets 31, whereupon the doorwill be tightly closed and latched. If desired a seal, indicated at 34in Figure 1 may .be engaged through alined openings in the sockets 31and catches 32.

.To install the device one ball bearing 23 is placed under the trackrail 10, the door is pushed along until the center ball bearing hanger20 rests on the top of the track 10; then the door is pushed along untilthe second ball bearing 23 comes beneath the track 10. Thereupon thedoor can be readily moved to its position at the center of the car.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the door will make anexceedingly tight fitting closure safe from dust, sparks, rain, etc. Oneor more locks may be provided for the door and these locks may be of anyconstruction desired.

The improved door and its support may be easily installed on any carsnew or old with little expense and it will eliminate to a large extentthe damage caused by fire from sparks, and the damage caused by theelements, dust, rain, etc.

In order to assist in opening and closing the provide attachdoor. To aneye bolt or an eye or opening in the web 40, there is swivelly attacheda ring 4l'formed on the upper end of a rod 42. This rod extends down tothe lower portion of the door where it is fashioned into, or carries, ahandle 43 spaced above a fixed handle or hand grip 44 along the lowerportion of the door. The rod 42 may be held in fixed position againstthe door by a spring clip or some other suitable holding means Lidicatedat 45.

At 46 is shown a guard attached to the door for limiting the outermovement of the door and also for guiding the longitudinal slidingmotion of the door.

At 47 is represented a spring locking device to hold the door securewhen left open transit.

When the door is to be moved into or out of the door opening, the handle43 is grasped and pulled outwardly to disengage the rod 42 from theholder and to cause the rod 42 to swing about its ring 41 away from thedoor. ihe handle 43 is grasped in one hand and the hand grip 44 in theother hand and force is thus applied manually to push the door into theopening or pull it out of the opening, such force being applied at boththe upper and lower portions of the door so as to cause the door to moveevenly and snugly into and out of its opening.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in thedetails of construction and design of the above specifically describedembodiment of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof,such changes and modifications being restricted only by the scope of thefollowing claims:-

What is claimed is:

1. In a' railway freight car having a door opening, a track extendingabove and beyond the opening and consisting of a substantiallyhorizontal web portion having upper and lower surfaces and a downwardlyprojecting flange at the outer edge of the web portion spaced from theside of the'car, a door for moving transversely into and out of theopening and longitudinally of the car, a single supporting bracketsecured to a central portion of the car door and being offset about andabove the track web, a hemispherical socket carried by the upper portionof said bracket, a spherical ball rotatably mounted in said socket andresting revolvably for both transverse and longitudinal movement on saidweb whereby to support the entire weight of the door at substantiallyone point, brackets secured at the upper corner portions of the door andextending up therefrom within said flange and adjacent theunder surfaceof said web, hemispherical sockets carried by said corner brackets, andspherical balls carried revolvably in said sockets and having bothtransverse and longitudinal movement beneath the under surface of saidweband said corner brackets confined by said flange to prevent thedisengagement of the upperweb-supporting ball from moving off the uppersurface of the web.

2. In a railway freight car having a side door opening, a door supportedon said car'for transverse movement into and out of the door opening andlongitudinalmovement ofthe car, said car having a socket in its-lowerportion underlying the lower edge of the door, the rear portion of thesocket extending up a short distance within the inner edge of the doorwhen fitted in said opening, a short pin pivoted horizontally to thecarand having its upper portion above the pivot extending into saidsocket and swingable in a vertical plane therein, the upper end portionof the pin engaging in the portion of the socket lying above and behindthe edge of the door, said pin having adownwardly: extending handleportion exposed below the body of the car for manual operation to forcethe door out of the door opening.

3. In a railway freight ca-rhaving a side door opening, a door supportedto move in and out the opening in a transverse direction and alsolongitudinally of the car, a handle on the lower central portion of thedoor for pulling the door outwardlyof'the opening, an elongated rodpivoted to swing in a substantially vertical plane outwardly from thedoor, said rod being pivoted at its upper portion toan upper centralportion of the n: add

door and having a handle at its lower portion 3 said handle and thelower portion of the rod.

EDMUND FOSS.

